How Do Choose the Right Career

Choosing a career is an involved process that is based on a number of things, including your interests, skills, work-related values, and personality. You might want to meet with a career development professional, i.e. career counselor or career development facilitator. A career development professional will use various tools to help you evaluate your interests, personality, skills, and values. This is called a self assessment. He or she will then show you how all these things, combined, play a role in choosing a career.

If finances are an issue, don't let that keep you from getting the help you need. Check with your public library since some offer career planning help. Also check with local colleges and universities. Most have career development offices which may offer services to members of the community. Programs that train career counselors often have students work with members of the community in order to gain experience. There are self assessment tools you can use for free online.


What you should end up with is a list of suitable careers based on your self assessment. Obviously you can't do everything on your list, nor will you want to. Here's where you need to do some research. You should begin to gather information about these careers which will include a job description, outlook for the field (will you be able to find a job), and required training and education. When you have narrowed down your choices to just a few, then you should investigate even further, perhaps conducting some informational interviews with those working in the field. You can now make an educated decision about what career to pursue.

Getting Your Child Ready for Work



We all want our children to be successful in life. We hope to one day see them in satisfying careers with the promise of growth. The thought of seeing our children in dead-end jobs saddens us. We wonder, though, if there's anything we can do to help ensure that they are successful.

In 1990, then Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin, wondered the same thing and formed the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Martin asked the Commission, comprised of representatives from schools, government, unions, and corporate America, to examine the demands of the workplace and to determine whether American youth are capable of meeting those demands. After a year of talking to employers, supervisors, workers, and union officials, the Commission identified a set of competencies and foundation skills, known as SCANS skills, that everyone entering the workforce must have.

SCANS Skills.
Following are the eight areas the Commission identified as being essential for both students who are going directly to work after high school and those who are going on to college. SCANS skills are made up of five competencies and three foundation skills. Competencies and foundation skills are intertwined -- They are used together and should be learned together.

The Five Competencies


Resources



allocates time
allocates money
allocates material and facility resources
allocates human resources

Interpersonal



participates as a member of a team
teaches others
serves clients/customers
exercises leadership
negotiates
works with cultural diversity

Information
acquires and evaluates information
organizes and maintains information
interprets and communicates information
uses computers to process information.

Systems

understands systems
monitors and corrects performance
improves and designs systems

Technology

selects technology
applies technology to task
maintains and troubleshoots technology

The Three Foundation Skills


Basic Skills:

reading
writing
mathematics (arithmetical computation and mathematical reasoning)
listening
speaking

Thinking Skills:

creative thinking
making decisions
solving problems
seeing things in the mind's eye
knowing how to learn
reasoning


individual responsibility
self-esteem
sociability
self-management
integrity

So now, instead of wondering whether your child will be successful, you can make sure she has the necessary skills. Make sure your child's school is incorporating SCANS skills into its curriculum. Then reinforce the SCANS skills at home.